Japan // Day 6 - Pokemon Centre + Gudetama Café + Meiji no Mori Minō Quasi-National Park + Umeda Sky Building

Thanks to the rain and us oversleeping till almost 12noon, today started off pretty horribly and we had to cancel Osaka Castle and the Instant Ramen Museum which was a huge bummer.

It started drizzling when we were on our way to the JR station so we decided to give Osaka Castle a miss because we were afraid that the rain would get heavier and we’d get stuck there. With that, we headed to straight to Umeda for Pokemon Centre and Gudetama Café.

Pokemon Centre was, I’m not gonna lie, a huge disappointment. It turned out to just be a Pokemon-themed area that sold tons of Pokemon related plushies, keychains, etc. It barely even felt like a “centre” unless “centre” is used because it’s in the centre of the floor. Nevertheless, we all got something back and I, a present for a friend.

Just when we were about to leave, we spotted a token stamp machine and decided to make 1 each since it only costs 100yen!

Lunch was up next at Gudetama Café, a short walk from Pokemon Centre. We ordered almost every main on the menu because there were very limited options. The boys devoured the don even before I was done with my photos so I didn’t get a chance to try it but they all said that it was even better than the don we had last night! Everything else was pretty normal but still above our expectations because we all expected conceptualized shops like these to have pretty bad tasting food.

I snagged for myself a cute ass Kirimi keychain from a stall nearby and I’m the happiest I can be because Kirimi, unlike Gudetama, isn’t a common Sanrio character outside of Japan. To be honest it wasn't exactly cheap but I didn't think twice because it's really hard to get it back in Singapore. However, upon purchase, the lady suddenly told me that the price also includes a free name carving + letter keychain! Not so expensive after all.

It was already 3PM by the time we finished our lunch and the Instant Ramen Museum closes at 4PM so we decided to give it a miss because it would take about 30 minutes to get there by train. We headed straight for Meiji no Mori Minō Quasi-National Park in hopes of catching a waterfall.

When we arrived, it was drizzling slightly with no humankind in sight. We walked and walked and walked, unsure of where to go, and made it to a rest stop to visit the restroom. There was a closed shrine nearby and we unconsciously inched our way towards it as we took photos of the vicinity while waiting for Jun Xiang to finish his business.

Too caught up with taking photos, we didn’t give two hoots about the rain getting heavier and not before long, were seeking shelter at the entrance of the closed shrine.

Despite not being able to find the waterfall in the end, we utterly enjoyed ourselves at this desolated shrine as we acted like ninjas in the rain.

The rain eventually stopped and we made our way to Umeda Sky Building. There are 2 viewpoints of the building, with the highest and most spectacular view requiring an entrance fee of 700yen. We bailed upon realizing that a city skyline after the sun has set in Osaka would look no different from Singapore’s. It was a pity we didn’t manage to get there earlier (damn you rain!) but we did manage to get a glimpse of the view through a glass that was covered by lines while waiting for the lift back down. We also managed to take the escalator that “floats” more than 550ft off the ground! My friends were all pretty wow-ed by it while I went “aren’t all escalators floating…?” before getting called to shut up for busting their bubble L

There were many small opportunities to see the view without paying that 700yen but extremely tough to get a good photo so this is mine as a meticulously try to place my iphone 6s camera lens in between the lines of the glass.

Determined to get my Kate Spade wallet (and Gerald, his cards) before the shops close, we skipped dinner and split up before meeting back at Ichiran Ramen for our last dinner here. Ichiran is a 24 hour ramen shop so we didn’t have to worry about it closing although the queue was insane even at 10pm.Thankfully, they had another quiet outlet nearby which the staff directed us to and we were noisily slurping our bowls of ramen in no time.

With it being our last night here, we tried as hard as we could to crack up something to do but to no avail because almost everything was closed by then. Disappointed, we headed to a convenience store nearby to grab as many souvenirs, or food, as we could fit into our luggage.

We have to be up bright and early tomorrow to catch our flight and some of us are determined to not sleep in case we miss out flight.

Today is considered the last day of our trip and I won’t be writing about tomorrow because the entire day is just travelling so I’ll see you again on my next trip to Bali! Xx.